Committed Locally, Engaged Globally: Global Faith Based Healthcare Systems

On November 2025 a meeting of the project “Global Faith-Based Healthcare Systems” was held at FBK, hosted by the Center for Religious Studies and Georgetown University.
Bette Jacobs, referent of the project, underscored the necessity to reflect on potential and limits of AI in medicine, on the economic strain implied: humane dimensions implicated tend to disappear, but technology impacts ways of living, thinking and imagination. Global institutions are committed to offering practical guidance in this field; medicine remains defined by its ends and is structured on the physician-patient relationship, as a healing encounter: a responsible approach to AI in healthcare, attentive to social justice, may be improved by combining the concepts of human dignity, common good and the preferential option for the poor.
If inspiration for the healthcare systems remains local and the specific regulatory environment defines infrastructures and systems, healthcare faith-based associations bring a relevant contribution on the global arena. Global health priorities are promoting justice, just policies and ethical workforce, building collaborations and partnerships. Higher social awareness, good public relationships and trust may help improve healthcare systems from a local and global perspective.